LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey and New York Giants receiver Golden Tate are unlikely to be disciplined by their teams for their postgame fight at SoFi Stadium, judging by comments from both players’ coaches Monday.
The NFL still might weigh in with fines after it investigates the clash rooted in a family feud between Ramsey and Tate, the uncle of Ramsey’s two children.
“I spoke to him, and (I was) just making sure that we’re all on the same page that we can’t allow some of those things to get in the way and have something bad happen for yourself or this football team,” Rams coach Sean McVay said Monday night. “These are grown men, and I didn’t get into the he-said, she-said.”
Giants coach Joe Judge said his players told him Ramsey had initiated the altercation, although that wasn’t clear to other observers at the stadium. Neither Tate nor Ramsey spoke publicly Monday.
“All I can say is the account I got from a number of our players was that there’s a history, obviously, between them,” Judge said. “There was a punch thrown. Golden was defending himself. I was told he wasn’t the one who threw the punch.”
Ramsey and Tate fought shortly after the final whistle Sunday in the Rams’ 17-9 victory over the Giants in Inglewood. They had already engaged several times on the field during the game, and Ramsey made a spectacular, bone-crunching hit on Tate on a key third down in the fourth quarter.
Although neither Ramsey nor Tate appeared to walk onto the field looking for a fight amid the postgame handshakes, they immediately stepped to each other when the players between them parted. Both men appeared to participate in the scrap as they grabbed each other and went to the ground.
Their teammates broke it up relatively quickly. Ramsey returned to the field shortly after the other players cleared out, pacing the turf and talking intermittently on his phone.
McVay said he hadn’t heard whether the NFL will discipline either player. Judge said the Giants probably wouldn’t discipline Tate, while McVay said the Rams would handle the matter internally.
“There’s so many things that ended up occurring,” McVay said. “I think it’s more about let’s make sure we understand that stuff and make sure it doesn’t happen again. I’m more interested in solving the problem and moving forward, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”
The two Nashville-area natives have a feud around Ramsey’s former relationship with Breanna Tate, the mother of Ramsey’s two young children and Golden Tate’s sister.
Ramsey and Breanna Tate, a former track athlete at Ole Miss, broke up last year, reportedly while Breanna Tate was pregnant with their second child. Golden Tate made his displeasure with Ramsey known on social media, and it boiled over in their first on-field meeting since then.
“This isn’t why we play the game,” Judge said. “We have 60 minutes to beat the hell out of each other legally between the whistles. We don’t need anything extra after.”
AP Sports Writer Tom Canavan contributed to this report.
More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
Regulators authorized AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine for use in adults throughout the European Union on Friday, amid criticism the bloc is not moving fast enough to vaccinate its population.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former FBI lawyer was sentenced to probation for altering an email that the Justice Department relied on during its surveillance of an aide to President Donald Trump during the Russia investigation.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Tony Evers lashed out Friday at rival Republicans who tried to repeal his statewide mask mandate, saying killing the order would be a ridiculous move comparable to abolishing speed limits.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — As some conservatives in South Carolina celebrated getting a bill that would ban almost all abortions in the state past a legislative barrier and likely becoming law, they said they are not finished trying to end all abortions.
A Moscow court on Friday put the brother and several allies of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny under house arrest for two months as authorities sought to stymie more protests over the jailing of the top Kremlin foe.